From 2007 - 2009 the German government built a huge Leisure Park at the Nürburgring. It is based on fake visitor numbers, oversized and badly executed. Most of the time it is an empty ghost town. Once promised as private investment, it is now based on a debt of 350+ million EUR public money.

Instead of pulling the plug they rented the park - including both race tracks - to exactly the same privateers (Kai Richter, Jörg Lindner), who were driving forces behind the Leisure Park's initial private setup.

Without Racing experience they are since experimenting with events completely unrelated to Motorsport (German Volksmusik for example, another one here) - all under the iconic "Nürburgring" brand name.

They now want Nordschleife to pay for the huge losses of "NüroDisney": record prices and bundled packages for tourist drives plus a 5 times increase for the automotive industry in rent for their prototype testing sessions.

The state owned Nürburgring has filed for bankruptcy with around 400 Mio. Euro of debts vs estimated 100 Mio. Euro of assets, it is now looked after by a liquidator. The theme park (est. 330 Mio. Euro) is only 3 years old (opening July 2009), but apparently worth only a fraction of the investment. The NAG - Jörg Lindner's and Kai Richter's "Nürburgring Automotive GmbH" - has finally left, after tense blame and negotiations. They still keep running the "Eifeldorf" gastronomy and the two "Lindner" hotels. The Ring's homepage and Facebook site is now run by insolvency administration.

The are pushing hard to sell the Nürburgring, not only the new facilities, but the two race tracks (Nordschleife, GP Circuit) as well. Otto Flimm - supported by many motorsport organisations - insists, the racetracks need to stay in public ownership and protests heavily against the over-hasty sale.

2-November-2012: The Nürburgring is officially under insolvency administration.

16-October-2012: First day in court for the large Nürburgring fraud-lawsuit.

18-July-2012: The government of Rhineland-Palatinate declares the state owned Nürburgring GmbH bankrupt. It not only ownes the two tracks (GP circuit and Nordschleife), but also everything related to the Leisure Park (coaster, hotels, ringwerk, restaurants, boulevard, etc.). The press conference at 10:30 am attracted a lot of attention, the news even got aired at the main Tagesschau in the evening. On stage: Kurt Beck (premier), Carsten Kühl (minister of finance), Eveline Lemke (minister of econimics) and Roger Lewentz (home secretary).

09-Jun 2010: Richter/Lindner introduce a new homepage for nuerburgring.de, the layout is the one we currently see.

01-May 2010: For the first time in the Ring´s long history privateers take over control.

27-Apr 2010: An alternative Nürburgring concept is presented in Mainz along with highlighting the concerns of the planned setup. I was part of the working group and our goal was to show alternative ways to run the Nürburgring.

25-Mar 2010: The contracts with Kai Richter and Jörg Lindner are signed to rent the Nürburgring for 20 years starting May 1st, 2010. At the same time the Gouvernment takes over all of the new facilities. Everything is now publically owned without any private investments.

27-Dec 2009: Rainer Mertel dies with heart attack at the age of 64 after a hearing at the Commission of Enquiry concerning Nürburgring.

03-Jul 2009: Normann Böhm and Michael Merten request 4 Million Euro provision for two 100 Million Euro cheques they have handed to Nürburgring GmbH. After buying the premises they would rent it back. Walter Kafitz and Ingolf Deubel sign the money transfer, however it got stopped only by a mistake within the process.

23-Jun 2009: The county Hessen informs about money laundering suspicion in relation to the projects financing.

09-Jun 2009: Wilhelm Hahne, a local German automotive Journalist aged 76, receives a house search by Rheinland-Pfalz prosecution. Computers and cameras have been taken away.